Lucky SEAL (Lucky Devil #2)

by Cat Miller

  “Look at you,” Evan shouted at Jennifer. “Why did you make me shoot at you?” Evan appeared horrified by Jennifer’s unkempt appearance. “I wish Bigs were still alive, so I could kill him again for touching you.” Evan, like the nut he was, turned his gun on the corpse that rested nearby and fired another shot into the lifeless body.

  Rourke used the opportunity to pull the glock from his second back holster. He fired once to knock the gun from Evan’s hand. Evan cursed and scurried backward, falling in the process. Rourke moved in on the injured lunatic. His heart screamed at him to kill the man who’d done so much damage to Jennifer. His brain, however, reminded him that their every move was being watched. He hesitated, and Evan lunged at Rourke. Rourke tripped over the body Evan had just shot, and they both went down. Rourke and Evan rolled on the ground, wrestling over the gun. It was a short struggle due to Rourke’s superior skill and size.

  Rourke loomed over Evan. His gun hand steady. The man in him wanted to kill Evan for what he’d done to Jennifer, but the operator in him wouldn’t let him fire on an unarmed man. The report of a gun behind him had Rourke moving off Evan, but he kept his gun on the worm. Jennifer screamed. Rourke feared she’d picked up a gun to help him and accidentally shot herself. He was wrong.

  “My next shot won’t miss. I don’t want to shoot her, but I will.” Tommy snarled, “Put the fucking gun on the ground and back away.”

  The young man who’d covered Jennifer with his own body had fired a shot at her feet, making her scream and dance. She was trembling. Jennifer was either going into shock or just terrified. Neither was acceptable.

  “Tommy?” Jennifer looked at the younger man with betrayal in her eyes. Tommy stared back coldly.

  Rourke believed Tommy. He would kill Jennifer to save his boss. Rourke threw his gun off into the bushes. He didn’t want Evan grabbing it easily.

  “Jennifer, baby, don’t move,” Rourke instructed her. Tommy was looking unstable. He rolled to his feet from the ground surprisingly uninjured. He’d been playing possum the entire time. There wasn’t a scratch on him. Just blood from being pressed against Jennifer.

  “Good man, Tommy! Again, you save my hide. There will be a massive bonus for you this round, son. You’ll be getting Bigs’ cut.” Evan smiled triumphantly.

  “I can’t let you kill him. I’m sorry, Jennifer. Evan MacGraff needs to pay for the lives he’s ruined and the crimes he’s committed.” Tommy was almost apologetic.

  Tommy turned his gun on Evan. The smile ran from Evan’s smug face. Tommy brought his arm up to his face and spoke into his watch. “Move in. I’ve got MacGraff and all the evidence we’ll need to put his ass away for a very long time.” Now, Tommy was the one smiling.

  “What the fuck, Tommy?” Off in the distance, the sound of sirens could be heard swiftly moving closer. Evan wasn’t looking so confident any longer.

  Tommy spoke to Rourke without taking his eyes off the piece-of-shit his firearm was aimed at. “I’m sorry, man. I know you want him dead, so do I, but there’s more at stake here than one man’s revenge. I’ve been undercover for over a fucking year. We finally have enough to make a conviction stick.”

  “You’re a fed?” Rourke asked, but he already knew the answer. It was a good damn thing Rourke hadn’t killed the agent.

  “DEA,” Tommy confirmed.

  “Motherfucker! I will kill you, you rat fucking bastard!” Evan was spitting mad again. He promised death for Tommy and his entire family, including the ones already dead, whom Evan planned to revive so he could kill them again. His rage had shifted from Sanchez to Tommy the DEA agent who’d been living under his nose, gaining Evan’s trust, and gathering information for over a year. Tommy didn’t look worried in the slightest.

  Several all-terrain vehicles rolled in from over the ridge toward the desert, kicking up dust. A few more pulled into view from the direction Evan’s shipment of drugs had gone. The rest of Evan’s men couldn’t have gone far before the DEA had them pinned down.

  Jennifer collapsed with relief. She just crumpled straight to the ground. She had to be in pain as well. Rourke used Tommy’s slight distraction to scoop up a gun lying discarded near the corpse and fired at Evan. Evan fell to the dirt with a scream of anguish. He clutched his shoulder with the injured hand Rourke hit to disarm the woman-beating piece-of-shit who now had a bullet hole to match the one he’d given Jennifer.

  “Fuck!” Tommy cursed.

  “I didn’t kill the prick. He doesn’t need the use of that arm to go to trial. Jennifer deserved at least that much. He should die for what he did to her.” Rourke wasn’t in the least sorry for taking the wind out of Evan’s crazy ass sails. Tommy was cursing about explaining that to his superiors.

  Rourke engaged the safety, wiped his fingerprints from the gun and tossed it back to the ground. He went to Jennifer and knelt behind her, protectively wrapping his body around her bedraggled and inadequately clothed form, while agents swarmed the area checking on the injured men. She melted back into Rourke, letting him take her weight.

  It appeared Tommy wasn’t the only one faking a more serious injury. None of Evan’s thugs was willing to stand by him once the bullets started flying. Not after he’d gunned down Bigs in cold blood for following orders and handling Jennifer no differently than Evan himself had in the past. One wasn’t injured at all. He’d just hit the dirt when Rourke began unloading clips into the clearing.

  Evan was being secured with his injured hands and shoulder at his front. He was glaring at Tommy. “This isn’t over. I’ll be out by morning.” Evan smiled. “There won’t be a place on earth you can hide from me.”

  Tommy blinked innocently at his former employer, completely undisturbed by the threat. “Shucks. Does that mean I won’t be getting my bonus?” The smartass agent asked with a grin.

  “Oh, you’re getting a bonus, alright, boy. I can’t wait to deliver it myself.”

  Evan shifted his attention to Jennifer, who watched the scene wordlessly with wide, confused eyes and dilated pupils. She needed to get to a hospital now. Rourke feared she was going into shock. Rourke was so proud of his woman. She’d been through hell and back, and she hadn’t gone into hysterics. She was stoically dealing with the situation.

  “Jenny, baby, don’t be afraid. I’ll be out by morning, and I’ll come for you. I have the honeymoon all planned.” Oddly, that didn’t sound like a threat. The nut was still planning to marry Jennifer. “I’ll send some of the boys to watch over you in the meantime. This whole thing was just an unfortunate mishap. I’m sorry I shot you, but in my defense, you did fire first,” Evan shouted back to Jennifer as he was being dragged away walking backward.

  While Evan watched, Tommy turned his gun on Rourke. Jennifer flinched.

  “Hands behind your back,” Tommy ordered Rourke in full on DEA mode. “Your boss has already been taken in, man. Don’t fight me, and things will go easier for you.” Tommy faced them, and he gave Rourke a wink. Jennifer saw the gesture and relaxed. He whispered as he leaned over Rourke, “This fuck thinks you’re with Sanchez. He doesn’t know who you are, and neither do I. Let’s keep it that way.”

  Rourke didn’t fight Tommy when the agent tugged his arms behind him and pretended to secure Rourke’s hands behind his back. Tommy had no cable ties, but Evan couldn’t see that. Tommy hauled Rourke up to his feet, or he tried to. Rourke did most of the work to make it look as if Tommy was dragging a bound man to his feet. Rourke was twice Tommy’s size. The younger man never would have been able to manhandle Rourke. That was the last thing Evan would see before he was stuffed into the back of a waiting truck and driven away for medical attention, then he’d be off to lock-up to await arraignment.

  Rourke waited for the truck’s taillights to disappear before dropping the pretense of being arrested. He returned to Jennifer, lifting her from the ground and cradling her to his chest. Agents were crawling all over the scene, collecting evidence and taking pictures. Jennifer clutched his shirt.

&
nbsp; “I need a medic, now,” Rourke barked.

  “There’s a medivac in route.” Tommy paused. “What’s the eta on that medivac?” he asked one of the nearby agents who then tapped the device in his ear and repeated the question.

  “I don’t like airplanes. I don’t know about a helicopter,” Jennifer had lifted her head to tell Rourke.

  “Are you kidding me? Birds are awesome, babe. I jump out of them all time.” He smiled softly at her and joked to relieve the worry in her face, but it didn’t work. After the night she’d survived, Jennifer was finally starting to break down just a little. The good news was that she was talking again. Rourke hadn’t liked it one bit when she’d drawn back into herself. “It’s going to be just fine, baby. It’ll be a short trip. I’ll be there before you know it.”

  “I want to stay with you,” Jennifer told Rourke, and his heart swelled. He understood the feeling. He never wanted to be parted from her again, either.

  “I love you. This is all over now. Evan is gone. You’re going to the hospital. I’m going to follow you because they won’t have room on the bird. You need the flight nurses more than you need me right now. When you’re all patched up, I’m taking you home.” He kissed her gently. “We have big plans to make, you and I. Okay?”

  “Alright,” she agreed unhappily. She kissed him and jostled her shoulder in the process. She hissed. Rourke wished he could shoot Evan in his other shoulder.

  “The medivac is ten minutes out,” said the other agent. “The Vegas PD is about to lift off to make room for the other bird to land.”

  That explained the sound of a chopper nearby. The LVMPD must have moved to a forward position in case they were needed. If Rourke wanted to get back to Vegas with Jennifer, he’d need to be on that bird.

  “Tell them to wait for their ride along. I’ll be there in five.” Rourke had to go now.

  “You came in with the PD?” Tommy asked. Then he held up his hands before Rourke could answer. “I don’t want to know. I was just about to suggest you get moving. With all of this movement, it would be easy to lose track of a certain unrestrained person of interest. I don’t know who you are, but you saved Jennifer’s life when you intervened tonight. Evan is unstable, to say the least. She pulled a gun on him. He would have killed her in the heat of the moment.”

  “I know your people were observing from nearby. I passed them on my way in. Why didn’t you act sooner?” Rourke wanted to know why the DEA didn’t swarm the scene earlier.

  “I had orders to remain undercover. Evan isn’t the top of the food chain. He also has many sources. The higher-ups would have left me in place to gather as much information as possible on the rest of Evan’s network. Playing dead once I covered Jennifer was my objective. I was ordered to act when it looked like you would kill Evan. I broke cover to save the slimy bastard from you.” Tommy didn’t look upset about that at all.

  “I see,” Rourke’s interference affected the sting. He wasn’t sorry. They would have let Evan kill Jennifer if it meant their investigation would continue.

  “I’m personally glad it panned out the way it did. Jennifer survived. Evan survived. And I'm due for a nice long vacation. I’ve been undercover with that prick or over a year. I’m ready to go home.” Tommy admitted.

  “You’re leaving?” Jennifer was edging toward panic. She peered around at all of the black-clad DEA agents.

  “Do you want me to walk back to Vegas?” he asked. She rolled her eyes. There was his girl. She would get through this trauma, just as she had before. Jennifer was a strongwoman. She was just freaked out and she had every right to be. It had taken Rourke a few rides to get used to choppers too.

  “I flew in with the cops. That’s my ride home,” he explained. She raised a questioning eyebrow. “I’ll explain the how of it to you later at the hospital.”

  Tommy was a short distance away speaking to another agent when he was handed a phone, and he had a short conversation. When he hung up, he walked back to Jennifer and Rourke. “We need to move. Let’s walk. The PD is waiting for you, and it will be better to have Jennifer on site when the medivac lands.”

  Rourke set Jennifer down to fish his gun out of the bushes and grabbed his backpack from the steep incline he’d traversed to get to her. He scooped her back up when she tried to walk and swayed. He would happily ferry her to the medics. Rourke followed Tommy. They spoke as the two men hustled to the road the police had shut down when the sting went down. They’d made use of the space for a landing pad.

  “They don’t want to send you to the same hospital with Evan and his men. You have information that could be important to us. I doubt it since I know more than you do, but the higher ups want to talk you anyway. We don’t want to give Evan the chance to sneak up on you.” Rourke agreed wholeheartedly with this plan.

  “I’ll help any way I can,” Jennifer told Tommy.

  “I knew you would. Evan is going to the nearest hospital. We’re going to fly you to Sunrise Hospital back in Vegas,” Tommy explained to Jennifer, who was starting to freak out about the prospect of a helicopter ride alone. “They have a level two trauma center at Sunrise. She’ll be well taken care of,” Tommy reassured Rourke.

  They reached the road, and Rourke was forced to release Jennifer to Tommy’s care. He hated it, but he would be glad to have a slight head start on her. He’d need to get from the police hanger to Sunrise before she got there if possible. Jennifer looked small and fragile in Tommy’s arms.

  “Let’s go! The other bird wants to land,” the pilot called to Rourke.

  He swiftly kissed Jennifer. “You tell them your husband is on the way, you hear me? If they give me any shit about seeing you, I’m going super SEAL on their asses.”

  Jennifer gave him a little smile. “My husband is on the way. Got it. No SEAL Team ass whippings at the hospital.

  “Good girl. I love you. I’ll see you in a few.”

  Rourke could hear the other bird hovering nearby. Jennifer would be right behind him. He tossed his bag in and climbed in after it. As they lifted away, Rourke looked down to watch Jennifer for as long as possible. He could now see in Jennifer’s eyes the state of mind she’d described experiencing following her escape from Evan. She was paranoid and for good reason. Now she’d been traumatized again. More death and horror had crossed her path. She was covered with someone else’s blood and worse. She’d been shot. And she didn’t trust anyone but Rourke. Which was really only right since he planned to make her his wife as soon as she was well enough to stand before Pastor Davis and say her vows. He would get her help, too. He’d talk to them at the hospital about having a psychologist visit her. Rourke would go into therapy, himself, if that were what it took to convince her to go when got home.

  Rourke’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and his stomach dropped. It wasn’t just any ringtone. It was series of beeps, pauses, and vibrations that let him know it was a call he could not ignore. He pulled out the phone and cursed long and loud. The officers around him edged away as far as they could without exiting the bird. He couldn’t blame them. Rourke was furious. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time. He had a message from his senior chief. Rourke’s team was being recalled, effective immediately, if not sooner. He would not be going to the hospital. He wouldn’t even be going home to get any of his things. When an order of this magnitude arrived, you dropped everything and went directly to the airport, where flight arrangements would already be waiting for you.

  Jennifer was frightened and injured, and she was relying on Rourke to be there for her. She only trusted him. She only wanted him. And Rourke wanted to be there for her, but it wasn’t going to happen. He prayed Jennifer would understand and forgive him.

  As soon as they touched down at the police hanger, which was located at the airport, Rourke leaped from the bird and jogged for the terminal. He dialed Dolce as he ran but got voicemail so he left a message.

  “Dolce, it’s Rourke. I need you to go to the hospital and meet Jennifer. She’s b
een shot, but she’ll survive. Luc can give you a little more detail. I’ve been recalled immediately. I can’t go be with Jennifer. I have no way to reach her, either. She won’t have any clue where I’ve gone. Please tell her I’ll be home as soon as possible. Tell her I love her. Make sure she knows I love her, and I’ll be home soon.” Rourke disconnected the call. He had some life changing choices this trip home and he couldn’t make them happen.

  TWELVE

  Two long months down range with his SEAL team on a series of operations that were completely off the grid left Rourke with a case of homesickness the likes he hadn’t experienced since boot camp. The separation from Jenifer at such a crucial point in their blooming relationship was mostly to blame for his anxiety and urgent need to get home to Vegas. The dramatic way they parted after such a violent situation also scared the shit out of Rourke. He needed to get back to Jennifer as soon as possible. Rourke had a lot of explaining to do.

  Rourke had never felt so instantly and irrevocable drawn to another person before, and it was an eye opening experience. He knew without a doubt that he was in love with Jennifer. He’d told Jennifer as much. Unfortunately, it had been a less than ideal time to confess his love, but after the fleeting moments when he thought she was dead, the words just tumbled out of his mouth. It was a good thing he’d told her when he did, though. If he hadn’t, Rourke would have left Jennifer without a goodbye and no idea how much he truly felt for her.

  In hindsight, he felt like an idiot for not telling her as soon as he realized he wanted her in his future, in his forever, but he’d felt it was unfair to put any pressure on her given the stress she was already under. He told Jennifer she was his woman and they had a lot to talk about once he took care of Evan. At the time that seemed like enough. If Rourke had known how little time he’d have with Jennifer things would have gone differently.